The singing nun résurrection
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Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers (1933 - 1985)
Jeanne-Paule Marie(Sister Luc Gabriel)"Sœur Sourire"Deckers
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Problems/Questions
Profile last modified | Created 12 Oct 2014
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Biography
Sister Luc Gabriel Deckers is Notable.
Jeanine Deckers (aka Sœur Sourire or The Singing Nun) was a Dominican nun and singer-songwriter best known for her song Dominique (1963). She would be portrayed by actress Debbie Reynolds in the film "The Singing Nun."
Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers was born in 1933. She was the daughter of a pâtisserie owner.
As a youth, she got involved in Guides Catholiques de Belgique (GCB) and purchased her first guitar in order to play at Guiding events.
It initially seemed after completing high school Jeanine would make a career teaching sculpture. She spent three years obtaining her diploma and then taught sculpture to adolescents between 1954 and
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Observant readers may remember that in my Waterloo Battlefield Walking Tour I stood outside a convent that once had a famous occupant. It’s a story I couldn’t resist. A Catholic nun with a no.1 hit single. Great riches yet great poverty too. A loss of faith and a personal tragedy. This is the story of The Singing Nun.
Who was The Singing Nun?
She was Jeanne-Paule Marie “Jeannine” Deckers, who was born on 17th October 1933 in Laeken. Educated in a Catholic school in Brussels, at the age of 15 she had a premonition that she would become a nun. She was an enthusiastic girl guide, a skilled guitarist and singer, and obtained a diploma that enabled her to teach sculpture. She did this until she was 26, when she left the teaching profession and entered the Fichermont Dominican Sisters Convent (the one I stood outside on the Battlefield of Waterloo). Here she took the religious name Sister Luc Gabriel.
A talented musician
In the convent, Sister Luc Gabriel’s talents as a singer-songwriter came to the fore. She wrote, sang, and performed her own songs for fellow nuns and visitors. H
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Biography
1933 - 1985
“We have reached the end, spiritually and financially and now we go to God.”
- Jeanne Deckers and Annie Pescher suicide note
In 1963, Dominican nun Sister Luc-Gabrielle recorded an LP at Philips Record Company in Brussels. One song from the album, ‘Dominique’, went #1 worldwide - selling over 1.5 million copies. Under the name Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile) she appeared on the legendary “Ed Sullivan Show” – a performance that made her an international superstar. In 1964 she won a Grammy for Best Gospel Recording and in 1965 MGM produced a highly fictionalized movie of her life – ‘The Singing Nun’ – starring Debbie Reynolds. Her follow-up LP ‘Her Joys, Her Songs’ was not a success, however. Having grown increasingly critical of Catholic doctrines – particularly the Church’s stand on artificial contraception – Jeanne left the order in 1967. Under the name “Luc Dominique” – since Philips owned the rights to the name ‘Soeur Sourire’ – she recorded the album ‘I Am Not a Star in Heaven’ – but it also proved a co
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